Category: Uncategorized

It’s taken a while to float down to earth after Stone Circles at Latitude Festival.

We decorated the trees with a Green Man and Green Lady, made by the talented Leila Nihill.

She added cut outs of people on grass to encourage people to take a break and relax.

We put 300 stones in the circles, leaving a sign with the simple message, ‘Add a stone, share a stone, take a stone.’

And people did. Over 300 people took stones and 600+ painted them.

There were family groups and people meditating alone; people exchanged phone numbers (and I witnessed others calling or texting them).

Some people spent ages perfecting their designs.

Others showed their love with, ‘EG 4 JS’ style messages.

Thanks to Simone Nihill and Jason Hamilton Smith for helping Leila and I create the Stone Circles; and Tania and the Latitude production team who made the event a joy to work. And if you added a stone to the Stone Circles, thanks for being part of the art.

Welcome to the Forest of Thoughts: a world where you can separate the wood from the trees, ponder whether a tree really falls down if no one hears it and see your ideas grow from tiny acorns into mighty oak trees.

Illustration by Kate Shields

The Forest of Thoughts was created in 2011, to stimulate scientific thought and creative play. So far, we’ve run arts, crafts and science events in Brighton, Suffolk and Tunbridge Wells, including jelly baby wave machines, lost-glove teddy-bear making, fairytale peg doll making, dinosaur towel origami, seedbomb making and a lot more besides.

Last year, the Forest of Thoughts created the Garden of Love at Latitude Festival: a crafting garden encouraging people to create their own utopia, using recycled materials (and the occasional sprinkling of glitter).

This year, we will be at Latitude again. We’ve got lots of ideas for new and magical gardens too: and we’re always looking the perfect places for them to grow… Contact us through @Groweatgift on Twitter if you’re running an event that could benefit from nature-themed art and science fun.

Artists and scientists; talkers and thinkers; skeptics and magicians, all are welcome in the Forest of Thoughts. And maybe we can all help each other grow…